Nefertiti - Ancient History - HISTORY.com Google Nefertiti as Queen Nefertiti may have been the daughter of Ay, a top adviser who would go on to become pharaoh after King Tut’s death in 1323 B.C. An alternate theory suggests she was a princess from the Mittani kingdom in northern Syria. She was her husband’s Great Royal Wife (favored consort) when he ascended the throne in Thebes as Amenhotep IV. In the fifth year of his reign, he displaced Egypt’s chief god Amon in favor of Aten, moved the capitol north to Amarna and changed his name to Akhenaten, with Nefertiti taking on the additional name “Neferneferuaten”—her full name meaning “Beautiful are the beauties of Aten, a Beautiful Woman has come.” Did You Know? The beauty of the iconic Nefertiti bust may only be skin deep. CT scans in 2009 revealed that underneath the surface of smooth painted stucco is the sculptor Thudmose's more realistic limestone carving of a woman with wrinkled cheeks and a bump on her nose.

Akhenaten’s transformation of religion brought with it radical changes in artistic conventions. Departing from the idealized images of earlier pharaohs, Akhenaten is sometimes depicted with feminine hips and exaggerated features. Early images of Nefertiti show a stereotypical young woman, but in later ones she is a near mirror image of Akhenaten. Her final depictions reveal a regal but realistic figure. On the walls of tombs and temples built during Akhenaten’s reign Nefertiti is depicted alongside her husband with a frequency seen for no other Egyptian queen. In many cases she is shown in positions of power and authority—leading worship of Aten, driving a chariot or smiting an enemy. After Nefertiti had given birth to six daughters, her husband began taking other wives, including his own sister, with whom he fathered the future King Tut ( Tutankhamen ). Nefertiti’s third daughter Ankhesenpaaten would eventually become her half-brother Tutankhamen’s queen. Nefertiti As a Possible Ruler Nefertiti disappears from the historical record around the 12th year of Akhenaten’s 17-year reign.

She may have died at that point, but it is possible she became her husband’s official co-regent under the name Neferneferuaten. Akhenaten was followed as pharaoh by Smenkhkare, who some historians suggest may have been another name for Nefertiti. This would not have been without precedent: In the 15th century B.C. the female pharaoh Hatshepsut ruled Egypt in the guise of a man, complete with a ceremonial false beard. If Nefertiti kept power during and beyond Akhenaten’s last years, it is possible she began the reversal of her husband’s religious polices that would reach fruition during the reign of King Tut. At one point Neferneferuaten employed a scribe to make divine offerings to Amun, pleading for him to return and dispel the kingdom’s darkness. The Bust of Nefertiti On December 6, 1913, a team led by German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt discovered a sculpture buried upside-down in the sandy rubble on the floor of the excavated workshop of the royal sculptor Thutmose in Amarna.

The painted figure featured a slender neck, gracefully proportioned face and a curious blue cylindrical headpiece of a style only seen in images of Nefertiti. Borchardt’s team had an agreement to split its artifacts with the Egyptian government, so the bust was shipped as part of Germany’s portion. A single, poor photograph was published in an archaeological journal and the bust was given to the expedition’s funder, Jacques Simon, who displayed it for the next 11 years in his private residence. In 1922 British Egyptologist Howard Carter discovered King Tut’s tomb. A flurry of international attention followed, and the image of Tut’s solid gold funerary mask was soon a global symbol of beauty, wealth and power. A year later the Nefertiti bust was put on display in Berlin, countering the “English” Tut with a German appropriation of ancient glamour. Throughout the 20th century’s upheavals, the bust remained in German hands. It was revered by Hitler (who said, “I will never relinquish the head of the Queen”), hidden from Allied bombs in a salt mine and coveted by East Germany throughout the Cold War .

Today it draws more than 500,000 visitors annually to Berlin’s Neues Museum. Tags Nefertiti - Ancient History Encyclopedia Nefertiti by Joshua J. Mark published on 14 April 2014 Nefertiti (c. 1370 - c. 1336 BCE) was the wife of the pharaoh Akhenaten of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt . Her name means, `the beautiful one has come’ and, because of the world-famous bust created by the sculptor Thutmose (discovered in 1912 CE), she is the most recognizable queen of ancient Egypt. She grew up in the royal palace at Thebes , probably the daughter of the vizier to Amenhotep III , a man named Ay, and was engaged to his son, Amenhotep IV, around the age of eleven. There is evidence to suggest that she was an adherent of the cult of Aten, a sun deity, at an early age and that she may have influenced Amenhotep IV’s later decision to abandon the worship of the gods of Egypt in favor of a monotheism centered on Aten.

After he changed his name to Akhenaten and assumed the throne of Egypt, Nefertiti ruled with him until his death after which she disappears from the historical record. Youth & Marriage Even though it appears that Nefertiti was the daughter of Ay, this claim is far from substantiated. Inscriptions refer to Ay’s wife, Tiye (or Tey) as Nefertiti’s wet nurse, not her mother, and nothing is known of Ay’s lesser wife. Ay, in addition to his other duties, was tutor to the young Amenhotep IV and may have introduced the prince to Nefertiti when both were children. Nefertiti and her sister, Mudnodjame, were certainly regular members of the court at Thebes and, whether or not Ay introduced her to Amenhotep IV, the two would have known each other simply for that reason. Remove Ads Advertisement Ancient images and inscriptions indicate her early interest in the cult of Aten but, as every Egyptian favored one god or another, there is no reason to believe that she had any ideas relating to monotheism or elevating Aten above the other gods (as has been suggested by some scholars).

All that can be stated with certainty is that both sisters were adherents of Aten and may have influenced Amenhotep IV’s interest in that cult from an early age. Any definitive statements regarding her influence on the rise of monotheism in Egypt must of necessity be speculative as there is no conclusive evidence to support it; just as there is little information on her life in general. The historian Peter B. Heller notes: What is so striking about Nefertiti’s life and work is that, even though her likeness – derived from Thutmose’s bust of her – is one of the best-known and most frequently reproduced in the world, and while she lived at a time when Egypt was the most cultured and most powerful nation on earth, remarkably little is known about her (3). By the time she was fifteen years old she was married to Amenhotep IV and, after the death of Amenhotep III, she became queen of Egypt. It is at this stage that some scholars claim she most exerted her influence on Amenhotep IV to abandon the ancient religion of Egypt and initiate his religious reforms but, again, this is unsubstantiated. Nefertiti and Akhenaten were deeply devoted to each other and constantly together.

Nefertiti & Akhenaten In the fifth year of his reign (some sources claim the ninth), Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten, abolished the religious practices of Egypt, closed the temples, and decreed Aten the one true god. While it is possible he created monotheism out of a genuine religious conviction, it is more probable that it was a political manoeuver to cut the power and wealth of the priests of the god Amun , whose cult was extremely popular. Throughout the 18th dynasty the cult of Amun had increasingly grown in wealth and prestige so that, by Akhenaten’s time, the cult's priests were almost as powerful as pharaoh. Instituting monotheism, and proscribing the old religion, would have completely restored power to the throne; and that is precisely what it did. The god Aten was now considered not only a powerful god of Egypt but the god of creation, the one true god of the universe. Advertisement Nefertiti appears with Akhenaten, ...at the site of Akhetaten (Amarna), the new city dedicated to the god Aten.

In the sixth year [of Akhenaten’s reign] Nefertiti’s name was changed to Nefernefruaten which means `Beautiful in beauty is Aten’. Nefertiti lived with Akhenaten in Amarna where he conducted religious services to Aten. (Bunson, 185). The couple had six daughters: Meritaten, Meketaten, Ankhesenpaaten, Nefernefruaten-tasherit, Neferneferure, and Setepenre, but no sons. With his lesser wife, Kiya, Akhenaten had two sons, Tutankhamun and possibly Smenkhkare (though Smenkhare’s lineage is disputed). Akhenaten married two of these daughters, Meritaten and Ankhesenpaaten (later, Ankhsenamun , wife of Tutankhamun) and may have had children with them (though this is also disputed). What is clear, however, from stele and inscriptions which survived the later purge of their reign, is that the royal couple was deeply devoted to each other and constantly together or with their daughters.

Regarding Nefertiti’s physical appearance at this time, Heller writes: It is surmised that she must have been about four feet, six inches tall, the height of an average Egyptian woman of the time. It is known from her depictions that she often went about scantily dressed, as was customary in the warm climate. Otherwise, she appeared in the traditional garb of a clinging gown tied by a girdle with ends falling in front; at times, she is depicted coiffed with a short wig. She probably had a shaven head to improve the fit of her unusual tall blue crown. It is known that she identified with her husband’s heresy and that, according to Akhenaten’s poetry, he loved her dearly. It is also known that her beauty was legendary (3). The royal family originally lived at the palace of Malkata in Thebes, which was built under the reign of Amenhotep III but renovated under Akhenaten and re-named Tehen Aten (meaning `the splendor of Aten).

The historian Barbara Watterson describes the palace: Remove Ads Advertisement The royal apartments were built on an especially grand scale: the king’s bedroom, for example, measured nearly 8 metres by 5 [26 feet by 16.5], and this excludes a raised recess to house the royal bed. The floor in the great hall of the king’s palace was painted to represent a pool in the marshes and that in the palace next door a pool with plants and water birds. The entire ceiling of the great hall was patterned with flying vultures; that of the king’s bedroom with a row of vultures. The ceilings of many rooms in the palace were painted with spirals and interweaving designs, combined with naturalistic forms such as flying birds (151). Watterson, and others, also point out that the palace was abundant in gold decorations and ornate reliefs. However opulent Malkata was, the new palace at the city the couple founded, Akhetaten, was even grander and, more importantly, served a symbolic purpose in the new religion of Aten.

The Egyptologist Zahi Hawass explains: As part of his religious revolution, Akhenaten decided to leave Thebes and move to a virgin site that would be dedicated to his new cult. The new city was located in Middle Egypt, and called Akhetaten, `Horizon of Aten’. It was laid out parallel to the river, its boundaries marked by stelae carved into the cliffs ringing the site. The king himself took responsibility for its cosmologically significant master plan. In the center of his city, the king built a formal reception palace, where he could meet officials and foreign dignitaries. The palaces in which he and his family lived were to the north, and a road led from the royal dwelling to the reception palace. Each day, Akhenaten and Nefertiti processed in their chariots from one end of the city to the other, mirroring the journey of the sun across the sky. In this, as in many other aspects of their lives that have come to us through art and texts, Akhenaten and Nefertiti were seen, or at least saw themselves, as deities in their own right.

It was only through them that the Aten could be worshipped: they were both priests and gods (39). In her role as part of the divine couple, Nefertiti may also have been co-regent. Akhenaten joined his cartouche (his seal) with hers as a sign of equality and there is evidence that she took on the traditional duties of pharaoh while her husband busied himself with theological reformation and architectural renovations. Images which have survived depict her officiating at religious services, receiving foreign dignitaries, moderating diplomatic meetings, and even in the traditional royal role of the king smiting the enemies of Egypt. None of these images would have been created if there were not some truth behind the stories they depict and so Nefertiti must have wielded more power than any woman in Egypt since the time of Hatshepsut (1479-1458 BCE). From the royal palace at Akhetaten, she sent forth the royal decrees and made the decisions which, according to tradition, were the responsibility of her husband.

Nefertiti’s Disappearance Around the year 14 of Akhenaten and Nefertiti’s reign, their daughter Mekitaten died in childbirth at the age of 13. An image in relief from the time shows the couple standing over their daughter’s body in mourning. Shortly after this, Nefertiti vanishes from the historical record. There have been many theories offered to explain her abrupt disappearance and, among these are: She fell out of favor with her husband because she could not produce a male heir and so was replaced by Kiya. She abandoned the religion of Aten and was banished by Akhenaten. She committed suicide in grief over the loss of her daughter. She continued to rule under the name of Smenkhkare until her step-son, Tutankhamun, was old enough to assume the throne. Of these theories, none of them can be substantiated but the fourth, and even that, many argue, is uncertain.

The leading proponent of the Nefertiti-as-Smenkhkare theory is Zahi Hawass who writes: This king [Smenkhkare] is shown as a male in the company of Meritaten as `his’ queen; however, his throne name was virtually identical to that of Akhenaten’s coregent, now convincingly identified as Nefertiti. Whether this king was Nefertiti herself or an otherwise unattested son of Akhenaten’s (or Amenhotep III’s) he or she died only two years after ascending the throne, and left Egypt in the hands of a young boy named Tutankhaten [later Tutankhamun] (47). The problems with the other theories are that Akhenaten already had a male heir in Tutankhamun and so would not have deserted his wife on that account (theory one); there is no evidence to support Nefertiti leaving the cult of Aten (theory two); she was still living after the death of her daughter and the throne name of Akhenaten’s successor is the same as hers (theory three).

The reason why theory two has long remained popular is because of evidence that the worship of the old gods began to revive toward the end of Akhenaten’s reign and, it is thought, this could not have happened without some kind of royal support or encouragement. Since it is considered impossible that Akhenaten would have abandoned the religion he created, it is speculated that it was his coregent who was behind this. The revival of the old religious practices, however, could easily have been a grassroots movement by the people of Egypt who had grown tired of being forced to neglect the traditional faith of the land. The Egyptians held that their actions were intimately tied to celestial balance and that their relationship with the gods was of vital importance. In abandoning the old gods of Egypt, Akhenaten would have thrown the universe out of balance and it is quite likely that the former priests of Amun, and those of other cults, finally decided to try to restore harmony to the land on their own, without consulting their ruler.

Since it is known that Nefertiti was a devotee of Aten prior even to Akhenaten’s conversion, and that she regularly took part in religious services, as well as the fact that no images or inscriptions give any evidence that she forsook the cult, it is highly unlikely that she would have led a return to the traditional religious practices of Egypt. The hatred the people had for the new monotheistic religion of their pharaoh is exemplified in its complete eradication after the death of Akhenaten’s successor Tutankhamun. Tutankhamun himself, upon taking the throne, abandoned the religion of Aten and returned Egypt to traditional practice. His successor, Ay, (possibly the same man suggested as Nefertiti’s father) continued his policies but the last pharaoh of the 18th dynasty, Horemheb , went further than either of them. Horemheb, claiming he had been chosen by the gods to restore the true religion of Egypt, tore down Akhenaten’s temples, defaced his stele, and tried to eradicate all evidence that the heretic king and his family had ever ruled Egypt.

It is because of Horemheb’ s decrees that so little is known of Nefertiti, and other royals linked with the Amarna Period, in the present day. The wonder, really, is not that so little is known but that, considering Horemheb’s hatred of Akhenaten’s reforms, and his dedication to the mission of erasing the king and his family from history, that modern day scholars have any information on the Amarna Period at all. Modern-day Controversy Nefertiti was the subject of controversy, between Egypt and England , when the British archaeologist, Joann Fletcher, claimed to have found the queen’s mummy in 2003 CE. Fletcher’s claim was based on details of a mummy, known by Egyptologists as the “Younger Lady”, which she felt matched depictions of Nefertiti. The Discovery Channel aired Fletcher’s theory as though the mummy of the queen had been positively identified when, in fact, this was hardly the case.

As a result, Fletcher was banned from working in Egypt because of an alleged breach in protocol which requires all archaeologists working in the country to first report their findings to the Supreme Council of Antiquities before releasing anything to the international press. Although this ban was later lifted, and Fletcher returned to Egypt, the controversy surrounding the mummy is unresolved. Fletcher’s supporters claim that the “Younger Lady” is Nefertiti while those who side with Hawass maintain the opposite. The very same details are used by both sides to support their claim and it seems unlikely there will be any resolution until some future discovery is made which lends more weight to one side than the other. Nefertiti has also caused an on-going dispute between Egypt and Germany over the famous bust presently residing in the Egyptian Museum (Neues Museum) of Berlin. Nefertiti’s face is one of the most instantly recognizable images from antiquity, perhaps, only second to her step-son Tutankhamun. Even if one does not know the queen’s name, statuettes and posters of the famous bust have been reproduced world-wide. Even so, when it was discovered in 1912 CE, no one knew who Nefertiti was.

The bust would have been remarkable for its beauty, of course, but not for the individual it represents. Because of the decrees of Horemheb, the royal family had been forgotten. Inscriptions from Horemheb’s reign show him as the successor of Amenhotep III, completely erasing the reign of the `heretic king’ and his successors. The bust was created c. 1340 BCE by the court sculptor Thutmosis as a model for his apprentices in their representations (whether sculpture or painting) of the queen. Because it was a model, and never intended for display, only one eye is completed. The Egyptian Museum of Berlin describes the Bust of Queen Nefertiti as “one of the first ranking works of Egyptian art mostly due to the excellent preservation of the colour and the fine modeling of the face…the bust is made of limestone which is covered with modeled gypsum. The eye is inlayed with crystal and the pupil attached with black coloured wax. The second eye-inlay was never carried out” (1). The bust is housed in Room 2.10 of the Egyptian Museum of Berlin in Germany where it was taken after its discovery at Amarna.

Hawass writes, “One day in the winter of 1912 CE, a German archaeologist named Ludwig Borchardt was excavating at Tell al-Amarna when he found a beautiful bust of Nefertiti in the workshop of a sculptor named Thutmosis” (39). What happened after this discovery is an ongoing, often heated, debate between Egypt and Germany. Since the enforcement of the rules governing antiquities in Egypt was fairly lax in the early 20th century CE (as, in some areas anyway, were the rules themselves) it does not seem there can ever be any way to resolve the dispute. The Germans claim that Borchardt found the bust, made a legal declaration of his find, and then brought the piece back to Germany. The Egyptian claim (as articulated by Hawass) argues that “the German mission covered the head with mud to disguise its beauty so that during the division of antiquities at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo the curator did not notice its remarkable features. Therefore, the bust was allowed to go to the Berlin Museum” (39).

The Egyptians, then, claim the bust was obtained illegally and should be returned to Egypt; the Germans, of course, argue it is their legal property and should remain in the museum. Hawass notes that, “Plans were made to return [the bust] to Egypt just before World War II, but Hitler asked to see it before it left the country, fell in love with it, and refused to let it out of German hands” (41). This claim has also been disputed by the German government and the former, and current, director of the Egyptian Museum of Berlin. In 2003 CE this controversy became more heated when the museum allowed two artists, known as Little Warsaw, to place the bust on a bronze body of a naked woman in order to show what the queen may have looked like. This very poor decision resulted in Egypt renewing its efforts for repatriation of the bust but, as the Little Warsaw exhibit lasted only a few hours, the controversy cooled and the bust remains where it has been since 1913 CE and where it continues to be one of the most popular pieces of art, if not the most popular, in the permanent collection.

About the Author Queen Nefertiti Queen Nefertiti Photo by Yuti (From museum in Berlin) Titles: Lady of The Two Lands (nbt-t3wy) Main King’s Wife (hmt-niswt-‘3t) Main King’s Wife, his beloved (hmt-niswt-‘3t meryt.f) Great King’s Wife (hmt-niswt-wrt) Great King’s Wife, his beloved (hmt-niswt-wrt meryt.f) Lady of all Women (hnwt-hmwt-nbwt) Mistress of Upper and Lower Egypt (hnwt-Shm’w-mhw) Nefertiti with her husband Pharaoh Akhenaten and her three oldest daughters. (Painting based on a stela) Family Background: It is not known who Nefertiti’s parents were. The most popular theory seems to be that Nefertiti was the daughter of the high ranking courtier Aye and his unnamed first wife. Aye’s wife Tey is known to have been Nefertiti’s wetnurse and tutor. This means that Nefertiti must have grown up with Aye and Tey.

Other theories have included Nefertiti being the daughter of the Mitanni King Tushratta and his wife Yuni. But there does not appear to be much evidence to support this theory. We first see Nefertiti as the King’s Great Wife of Amenhotep IV (who would later rename himself Akhenaten). Nefertiti is known to have had six daughters: Meritaten, Meketaten, Ankhes-en-pa-aten, Neferneferuaten-tasherit, Neferneferure, and Setepenre. Two depictions of daughters of Nefertiti. Maybe Meritaten and Ankhesenpaaten. Meritaten seved as Great Royal Wife towards the end of the reign of Akhenaten and into the reign of the mysterious Smenkhare. Ankes-en-pa-aten would be the longest surviving daughter of Nefertiti. She married the boy-king Tutankhamen and changed her name to Ankhesenamen. A princess eating a duck on the left, and some of the younger princesses at a banquet. Early Years Nefertiti depicted in the "Amarna Style".

Here shown with the modius and double plumed head-dress instead of the flat topped crown she is famous for. Nefertiti was the Great Royal Wife of Amenhotep IV / Akhenaten. Amenhotep IV built several structures at Karnak. The structures there include the Gempaaten which is a palace complex. It is believed that the royal family lived at the Gempaaten during the winter months (according to Aldred). One of the structures within the Gempaaten complex is the Hut-Benben (“Mansion of the Benben”). Aldred mentions that the Mansion of the Benben was a temple exclusively devoted to Nefertiti. In year 3, Amenhotep IV and Nefertiti apparently held a great festival in the temple at Karnak. Inscriptions show the royal couple traveling by palanquin, feasting while being entertained by dancers and musicians, and appearing at the palace’s “window of appearance” waving at the crowd. Nefertiti and Akhenaten rewarding the priest Parennefer. Behind the royal couple we see Princesses Meritaten, Meketaten, Ankhesenpaaten, their nurses and the Queen's Sister Mutnodjemet.

Moving to the New Capital of Egypt. Amenhotep at some point changes his name to Akhenaten, and founds a new Capital named Akhet-Aten more than a 100 miles north of Thebes. Nefertiti takes on the longer name of Neferneferuaten-Nefertiti. Several beautiful temples and palaces are built in Akhetaten and Nefertiti plays an important role in religious life as well as court life. In year 12 there is another large festival that takes place. Inscriptions in the tombs of the nobles show that there is a large tribute, and Akhenaten and Nefertiti are shown with their six daughters receiving tribute from many people. A trial piece showing Nefertiti. The Later Years Soon after year 12 disaster seems to strike. First Meketaten, the second eldest daugher, dies. Scenes in the royal tomb in Akhet-Aten (modern Amarna) show a grief stricken Nefertiti and Akhenaten mourning their daughter.

Around roughly the same time Akhenaten’s mother Queen Tiye also dies, and several of the younger daughters of Nefertiti also disappear from the scene. Nefertiti depicted in a Hem-Hem crown behind Akhenaten. Neferneferuaten-Nefertiti as coregent and possibly Pharaoh? It is difficult to say what exactly happened with Nefertiti towards the end of the reign of Akhenaten. For a while it was thought that Nefertiti fell into disgrace and was replaced at court by her daughter Meritaten. This theory was based on a mistaken identity however. A royal lady seems to have disappeared from the scene and her place was taken by Meritaten, but the lady in question was the secondary Queen named Kiya, not Nefertiti. It is possible that Nefertiti became a co-regent to Akhenaten and that Nefertiti ruled alongside her husband in the latter years of his reign. There is mention of an individual named Djeserkheperure Smenkhare and it is possible that this is a king who ruled between Akhenaten and Tutankhamen.

Some Egyptologists believe that Smenkhare is just another name for Nefertiti and that she became pharaoh after the death of her husband Akhenaten. Nefertiti’s burial. Nefertiti may have been buried in the royal tomb at Amarna, but this is by no means certain. A special set of rooms appear to have been prepared for her. It is not known what happened to her after that. Some speculate that her funerary equipment was reused in the burial of King Tutankhamen. There are some statues from Tut’s tomb which appear to depict a female ruler. People have tried to identify several mummies as being that of Nefertiti. The latest attempt was by Joanne Fletcher who claimed that a mummy in KV34 was that of Queen Nefertiti. This identification was actually first proposed by Marianne Luban. Susan James had proposed that the mummy of the “older woman” in the same tomb was actually that of Queen Nefertiti. The experts do not seem to consider any of the arguments conclusive and no mummy has been definitively identified as that of our illustrious queen.

There is also a partial shabti of Queen Nefertiti found in Amarna. The experts do not agree on the implications of that find. Some think it means that Nefertiti was buried as a queen, not a pharaoh, while others think that it could have been a votive figure donated at the time of one of the other royal burials. A partial royal shabti of Queen Nefertiti from the Louvre. Bibliography / Suggested Reading: 1. C. Aldred, Akhenaten: King of Egypt, 1988. 2. J.H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Vol.2: The Eighteenth Dynasty, 2001 (reprint of 1906 edition). 3. A. Dodson and D. Hilton, The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, 2004 4. R.E. Freed et al, Pharaohs of the Sun: Akhenaten – Nefertiti – Tutankhamen, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1999. 5. W.J.

Murnane, Texts from the Amarna Period, 1995 6. N. Reeves, Akhenaten: Egypt’s False Prophet, 2001. 7. G. Robins, Women in Ancient Egypt, 1993. 8. J. Tyldesley, Nefertiti: Egypt’s Sun Queen, 1998. 9. P. Vandenberg, Nefertiti: An Archaeological Biography, 1978. Some of the illusttrations courtesy of Jon Bodsworth 1000+ images about Nefertiti. The Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten on Pinterest | Digital art, Portrait and Egyptian queen Pinterest • The world’s catalog of ideas Nefertiti. The Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten 190 Pins422 Followers Queen Nefertiti - Crystalinks Nefertiti (ca. 1370 BC - ca. 1330 BC) was the Great Royal Wife (chief consort) of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten . Their story is best read on his file.

Nefertiti and her husband were known for a religious revolution, in which they worshiped one god only, Aten, or the sun disc. The exact dates of when Nefertiti was married to Akhenaten and later promoted to his Queen are uncertain. However, the couple had six known daughters. Her name roughly translates to "the beautiful one is come". She also shares her name with a type of elongated gold bead that she was often portrayed as wearing, known as "nefer" beads. Famed throughout the ancient world for her outstanding beauty, Nefertiti remains the one of the most well known Queen of Egypt. Though Akhenaten had several wives, Queen Nefertiti was his chief wife. She was made famous by her painted limestone bust (above), now in Berlin's Egyptian Museum, shown to the right. The bust, seen from two different angles, is indeed, the most famous depiction of Queen Nefertiti. Found in the workshop of the famed sculptor Thutmose, the bust is believed to be a sculptor's model. The technique which begins with a carved piece of limestone, requires the stone core to be first plastered and then richly painted.

Flesh tones on the face give the bust life. Her full lips are enhanced by a bold red. Although the crystal inlay is missing from her left eye, both eyelids and brows are outlined in black. Her graceful elongated neck balances the tall, flat-top crown which adorns her sleek head. The vibrant colors of the her necklace and crown contrast the yellow-brown of her smooth skin. While everything is sculpted to perfection, the one flaw of the piece is a broken left ear. Because this remarkable sculpture is still in existence, it is no wonder why Nefertiti remains 'The Most Beautiful Woman in the World.' Nefertiti's origins are confusing. It has been suggested to me that Tiye was also her mother. Another suggestion is that Nefertiti was Akhenaten's cousin. Her wet nurse was the wife of the vizier Ay, who could have been Tiy's brother. Ay sometimes called himself "the God's father," suggesting that he might have been Akhenaten's father-in-law.

However Ay never specifically refers to himself as the father of Nefertiti, although there are references that Nefertiti's sister, Mutnojme, is featured prominently in the decorations of the tomb of Ay. We may never know the truth of this bloodline. Life Nefertiti first appears in scenes in Thebes. In the damaged tomb (TT188) of the royal butler Parennefer the new king Amenhotep IV is accompanied by a royal woman, and this lady is thought to be an early depiction of Nefertiti. The king and queen are shown worshiping the Aten. In the tomb of the vizier Ramose Nefertiti is shown standing behind Amenhotep IV in the Window of Appearance during the reward ceremony for the vizier. During the early years in Thebes Akhenaten (still known as Amenhotep IV) had several temples erected at Karnak. One of the structures, the Mansion of the Benben (hwt-ben-ben), was dedicated to Nefertiti. She is depicted with her daughter Meritaten and in some scenes the princess Meketaten participates in the scenes as well.

In scenes found on the talatat Nefertiti appears almost twice as often as her husband. She is shown appearing behind her husband the Pharaoh in offering scenes in the role of the queen supporting her husband, but she is also depicted in scenes that would have normally been the prerogative of the king. She is shown smiting the enemy, and captive enemies decorate her throne. In the fourth year of his reign Amenhotep IV decided to move the capital to Akhetaten (modern Amarna). In his fifth year, Amenhotep IV officially changed his name to Akhenaten, and Nefertiti was henceforth known as Neferneferuaten-Nefertiti. The name change was a sign of the ever-increasing importance of the cult of the Aten. It changed Egypt's religion from a polytheistic religion to a religion which may have been better described as a monolatry (the depiction of a single god as an object for worship) or henotheism (one god, who is not the only god). The boundary stelae of years 4 and 5 mark the boundaries of the new city and suggest that the move to the new city of Akhetaten occurred around that time.

The new city contained several large open-air temples dedicated to the Aten. Nefertiti and her family would have resided in the Great Royal Palace in the center of the city and possibly at the Northern Palace as well. Nefertiti and the rest of the royal family feature prominently in the scenes at the palaces and in the tombs of the nobles. Nefertiti's steward during this time was an official named Meryre II. He would have been in charge of running her household. Inscriptions in the tombs of Huya and Meryre II dated to Year 12, 2nd month of Peret, Day 8 show a large foreign tribute. The people of Kharu (the north) and Kush (the south) are shown bringing gifts of gold and precious items to Akhenaten and Nefertiti. In the tomb of Meryre II, Nefertiti's steward, the royal couple is shown seated in a kiosk with their six daughters in attendance. This tribute from year 12 is one of the last times princess Meketaten is shown alive. Meketaten may have died in year 13 or 14.

Nefertiti, Akhenaten, and three princesses are shown mourning Meketaten. Nefertiti disappears from the scene soon after that. Death About Year 14 of Akhenaten's reign, Nefertiti vanishes from the historical record. There is no word of her after that date. Theories include sudden death by a plague that was sweeping through the city or another natural death. This theory is based on the discovery of several shabti fragments inscribed for Nefertiti (now located in the Louvre and Brooklyn Museums). A previous theory that she fell into disgrace is now discredited, since the deliberate erasures of monuments belonging to a queen of Akhenaten have been shown to refer to Kiya instead. During Akhenaten's reign (and perhaps after), Nefertiti enjoyed unprecedented power. The Coregency Stela may show her as a co-regent with her husband. By the twelfth year of his reign, there is evidence that she may have been elevated to the status of co-regent: equal in status to the pharaoh. It is possible that Nefertiti is to be identified as the ruler named Neferneferuaten.

Some theories state that Nefertiti was still alive and held influence on the younger royals. If this is the case, that influence and presumably Nefertiti's own life would have ended by year 3 of Tutankhaten's reign (1331 BC). In that year, Tutankhaten changed his name to Tutankhamun. This was evidence of his return to the official worship of Amun, and his abandonment of Amarna to return the capital to Thebes. Burial There are many theories regarding her death and burial but to date, the mummy of this famous and iconic queen has not been found or identified. Two mummies have been found which were initially believed to be her remains but has since been ruled out following recent DNA testing in 2010.

Eulogy to Nefertiti found on the boundary stelae of Akhetaten And the Heiress, Great in the Palace, Fair of Face, Adorned with the Double Plumes, Mistress of Happiness, Endowed with Favours, at hearing whose voice the King rejoices, the Chief Wife of the King, his beloved, the Lady of the Two Lands, Neferneferuaten-Nefertiti, May she live for Ever and Always. Together Akhenaten and Nefertiti transformed the religious practices of ancient Egyptian society. This limestone relief (above), found in the Royal Tomb at Amarna depicts Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and two of their six daughters making an offering to the sun-disk Aten. Akhenaten and Nefertiti carry flowers to be laid on the table beneath the "life-giving" rays of the Aten. The figures are carved in the grotesque style, a characteristic of the early half of the Amarna period. Nefertiti, sporting the double plume headdress mentioned in the stela dedication, is the petite figure placed behind her larger scale husband. The compostion mirrors early artistic representations of the royal couple.

To emphasize the strength and power of the pharaoh, Egyptian iconographical tradition required the female figure to be smaller in scale than the male. This shrine stela also from the early part of the Amarna period depicts Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and Princesses Meretaten, Mekeaten, and Ankhesenpaaten worshiping the Aten as a family. Dorothea Arnold in her article "Aspects of the Royal Female Image during the Amarna Period" discusses the plethora of reliefs depicting intimate family moments. While Akhenaten leans forward to give Meretaten a kiss, Mekeaten plays on her mother's lap and gazes up lovingly. At the same time Ankhesenpaaten, the smallest, sits on Nefertiti's shoulder and fiddles with her earring. Arnold claims that the shrine stela "relates to the Aten religion's concept of creation" in which the King and Queen are viewed as "a primeval 'first pair." At the top of the composition, the sun-god, Aten, represented by a raised circle, extends his life-giving rays to the Royal Family.

The relief uses the concept of the "window of appearances" or a snapshot of life. The figures are framed by a fictive structure which suggests the form of a square window. Aldred in his book Egyptian Art calls this "a brief moment in the lives of five beings as they are caught in an act of mutual affection". In actuality, the royal palace at Akhetaten had a window from which the royal couple could observe the city and address their subjects. The names of the daughters were; Meritaten (1349 BC) - Meketaten and Ankhenspaaten (1346 BC) - Neferneferuaten (1339 BC) - Neferneferure and Setepenre (1338). In 1337 BC the official family, with all six of Nefertiti's daughters was shown for the last time. In 1336 BC Meketaten died in childbirth. In 1335 Nefertiti seemed to vanish, assumed dead.

It is possible that Akhenaten's successors Smenkhkare and Tutankhaten were his children by another royal wife called Kiya who became his principle queen for a short while after year 12 of his reign. As with Akhenaten there is no trace of Nefertiti's mummy. Some jewelry bearing her cartouche was found outside the royal tomb at Akhetaten but there is no real evidence that she was buried there. From surviving record it seems she either fell from favor or died at around year 12 of Akhenaten's reign. In this case her burial may have been elsewhere. It is interesting to consider that the busts on this page were found in a sculptors workshop at Akhetaten. It seems that when the city was abandoned they were left behind because such was the anti Atenist feelings that no one wanted them. It is suspected that they were murdered, but the priests of the day who wished to return to the old religion - the worship of a panteon off gods and goddesses - stone idols - things one could see physically.

Nefertiti's place as an icon in popular culture is secure: she has become a celebrity, the second most famous "Queen" of Egypt in the European imagination and influenced through photographs the changed standards of feminine beauty of the 20th century. The sandstone relief above found in a temple at Karnak depicts Nefertiti praying to Aten and is characteristic of the Karnak style. It shows grotesque features include an oversized ear, a protruding face, an elongated neck and chin. This does remind one of realistic images of Akhenaten, who many suspect suffered from an illness called Marfan Syndrome, characterized by unusually long limbs. Nefertit's Tomb As Nefertiti's tomb was never completed and no mummy was ever found, the location of Nefertiti's body has long been a subject of curiosity and speculation. On June 9, 2003, archaeologist Joann Fletcher, a specialist in ancient hair, from the University of York in England, announced that Nefertiti's mummy may have been one found in the famous cache of mummies in tomb KV35 in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. Ms.

Fletcher led an expedition, funded by the Discovery Channel, that examined what is believed to have been Nefertiti's mummy. Furthermore, it suggests that Nefertiti was in fact the Pharaoh Smenkhkare. The mummy that was examined by the team was discovered damaged in a way that suggested the body had been desecrated either at the time of death or shortly after. Mummification techniques, such as the use of embalming fluid and the presence of an intact brain suggest an eighteenth dynasty royal mummy. Among the most suggestive features are the age of the body, the presence of embedded nefer beads, the fact that the arm had been buried in the position reserved for pharaohs and had been snapped off by vandals and replaced with another arm in a normal position, and a wig of a rare style worn by Nefertiti. On June 12, 2003, Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council for Antiquities, dismissed the claim, citing insufficient evidence. Elongated Skull According to Ancient Alien Theory ... Nefertiti and Akhenaten were not of this world ... coming here to help humans understand that there is only one god ...

light and consciousness ... and the worship of stone idols is false. Was that really the sun they were praying to or something else? Three thousand years ago, the rebel Pharaoh Akhenaten preached monotheism and enraged the Nile Valley. Less than 100 years after Akhenaten's death, Moses would be preaching monotheism on the bank of the Nile River, to the Israelis. The idea of a single God, once the radical belief of an isolated heretic, is now embraced by Moslems, Christians, and Jews throughout the world. The vision of Akhenaten lives on! Akhenaten: Egyptian Pharaoh, Nefertiti's Husband, Tut's Father Akhenaten: Egyptian Pharaoh, Nefertiti's Husband, Tut's Father By Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor | August 30, 2013 04:56pm ET MORE Credit: Sphinx Wang / Shutterstock.com Akhenaten was a pharaoh of Egypt who reigned over the country for about 17 years between roughly 1353 B.C. and 1335 B.C.

A religious reformer he made the Aten, the sun disc, the center of Egypt’s religious life and carried out an iconoclasm that saw the names of Amun, a pre-eminent Egyptian god, and his consort Mut, be erased from monuments and documents throughout Egypt’s empire. When he ascended the throne his name was Amenhotep IV, but in his sixth year of rule he changed it to “Akhenaten” a name that the late Egyptologist Dominic Montserrat translated roughly as the “Benevolent one of (or for) the Aten.” In honor of the Aten, he constructed an entirely new capital at an uninhabited place, which we now call Amarna, out in the desert. Its location was chosen so that its sunrise conveyed a symbolic meaning. “East of Amarna the sun rises in a break in the surrounding cliffs. In this landscape the sunrise could be literally ‘read’ as if it were the hieroglyph spelling Akhet-aten or ‘Horizon of the Aten’ — the name of the new city,” wrote Montserrat in his book "Akhenaten: History, Fantasy and Ancient Egypt" (Routledge, 2000).

He notes that this capital would quickly grow to become about 4.6 square miles (roughly 12 square kilometers) in size. After his death, the pharaoh’s religious reforms quickly collapsed, his new capital became abandoned and his successors denounced him. Akhenaten, either before or shortly after he became pharaoh, would marry Nefertiti, who in some works of art is shown standing equal next to her husband. Some have even speculated that she may have become a co-, or even sole, ruler of Egypt. Heir to an empire Akhenaten was the son of Amenhotep III and his wife Queen Tiye. During their rule, Egypt ruled an empire that stretched from Syria, in west Asia, to the fourth cataract of the Nile River in modern-day Sudan. At the site of Akhenaten’s new capital about 350 tablets known as the “Amarna letters” were uncovered in 1887, showing the diplomatic correspondence between Akhenaten, his fellow kings in west Asia, as well as those of vassals who owed the Egyptian king allegiance.

The letters indicate that an empire called the Hittites, based in modern-day Turkey, became increasingly assertive during Akhenaten’s rule, going to war against the Mitanni, a people who had been an Egyptian ally. “In addition to their conflicts with the Mitanni, the Hittites were also stirring up instability in the vassal states of Syria, and a nomadic group, the Apiru, was creating unrest in Syro-Palestine,” writes Egyptologists David Silverman, Josef Wegner and Jennifer House Wegner write in their book "Akhenaten and Tutankhamun: Revolution and Restoration" (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2006). They note that while previous Egyptian kings would likely have launched a military expedition into west Asia as a result of these acts, Akhenaten appears to have done nothing.

“Some modern scholars criticize Akhenaten, noting that he focused all of his efforts on his religious ideas and thereby allowed Egypt’s international prestige to deteriorate.” Turning to the Aten While the Aten, the sun-disc, was nothing new in Egyptian religion, Akhenaten’s decision to make it the focus of religious life, to the point where he desecrated the names of Amun and Mut, was something entirely new. Montserrat notes that at Karnak , a temple complex near Luxor that was devoted to Amun-Ra, the king would have a series of Aten temples built, their construction beginning perhaps in his very first year of rule. Even at this early stage, he appeared to have a dim view of the god Amun, whom Karnak was dedicated to. Montserrat notes that the axis of the new Aten complex was built facing to the east, toward the rising sun, whereas the rest of Karnak is oriented towards the west, where ancient Egyptians believed the underworld to be. “So Akhenaten’s first major building project turns its back on the temple of Amun, perhaps anticipating the events later in his reign,” Montserrat wrote.

Egyptologist James Allen notes in his book "Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphics" (Cambridge University Press, 2010) that sometime between the ninth and 11th years of Akhenaten’s reign, he changed the long form of the god’s name so that, in essence, the Aten became “not just the supreme god but the only god.” This coincided with the start of a campaign aimed at desecrating the names of the gods Amun and Mut, among other deities. “Akhenaten’s minions began to erase the names of Amun and his consort, Mut, and to change the plural… ‘gods’ to the singular ‘god.’ To judge from later inscriptions, the temples of the older gods may have been closed as well, and their priesthoods disbanded,” Allen writes. This extraordinary event occurred throughout Egypt’s empire.

“Care was taken to erase the name of Amun even from the letters in the diplomatic archive, commemorative scarabs, and the tips of obelisks and pyramids; the distant regions of Nubia were also affected, as far as Gebel Barkal at the Fourth Cataract of the Nile,” writes Egyptologist Erik Hornung in his book "Akhenaten and the Religion of Light" (Cornell University Press, 1999). “In some instances Akhenaten even had his own original personal name [Amenhotep, the name when he first assumed power] mutilated in his effort to do harm to the hated Amun.” Still Akhenaten appears not to have been able to convince all Egyptians to put their sole spiritual hopes in the Aten. Archaeologist Barry Kemp, who leads modern-day excavations at the site of Amarna, notes in his book "The City of Akhenaten and Nefertiti" (Thames and Hudson, 2012) that researchers have found figures depicting other deities, such as Bes and Thoth, at Amarna. He also notes that few Egyptians appear to have added the word “Aten” to their name in honor of the god.

In fact the sculptor Thutmose, who created an iconic bust of Nefertiti that’s now in a museum in Berlin, left his name in such a form that it honored the god Thoth. Grotesque art In addition to his radical religious changes, Akhenaten also unleashed a revolution in the way art was drawn. Before his time Egyptian art, especially those portraying royalty, tended to show a stiff, structured, formal style. This changed radically in Akhenaten’s time, with people being drawn with cone shaped heads and thin spindly limbs. The royal family was even drawn in a way that conveyed intimate moments. One depiction, reproduced in Hornung’s book, shows Akhenaten and Nefertiti riding a horse-drawn chariot, the two appear to be kissing each other with the rays of the Aten shining down on them. This radical departure in art, particularly the distorted body shapes, has long left Egyptologists mystified. Hornung writes that in 1931 the German Egyptologist Heinrich Schäfer commented, “anyone who steps in front of certain of these representations for the first time recoils from this epitome of physical repulsiveness.

His [Akhenaten’s] head seems to float atop his long, thin neck. His chest is sunken, yet there is something feminine about its form. Below his bloated paunch and his fat thighs, his skinny calves are a match for his spindly arms …” observed Schäfer. Why Akhenaten chose to depict himself and others this way is a mystery. It’s been hypothesized that he suffered from a severe physical deformity that made him change the Egyptian style of art. However recent study of a mummy found in KV 55, in the Valley of the Kings, which some believe is Akhenaten, show no signs of serious physical deformities. Kemp writes in his book that if it is true Akhenaten was not deformed then we have to look into the psyche of the man to find the answers to this mystery. “The images are a wake-up call that here is someone not in the mainstream of humanity. He is one of a kind, on the edge.

He wants you to feel uncomfortable and yet – as conveyed through the relaxed poses and overt affection for his family (as found in some of the art) to love him at the same time.” Akhenaten built a new capital at Amarna Credit: Sphinx Wang / Shutterstock.com The dark side of Amarna Regardless of whether or not Akhenaten wanted people to love him, recent research shows that the people who built his new city, out in the desert, paid a steep price. Recent research published in the journal Antiquity shows that the common people at Amarna suffered from nutritional deficiencies and a high juvenile mortality rate, even by the standards of the time. The children had stunted growth, and many of the bones were porous due to nutritional deficiency, probably because the commoners lived on a diet of mostly bread and beer, archaeologist Anna Stevens told LiveScience in an interview at the time the research was published. Researchers also found that more than three-quarters of the adults had degenerative joint disease, likely from hauling heavy loads, and about two-thirds of these adults had at least one broken bone as reported in the LiveScience story . Akhenaten’s death Akhenaten’s final years are shrouded in mystery.

Until recently, Egyptologists had noted that Nefertiti’s name appears to disappear around year 12 of his reign, the time the last of his major monuments were built. It has been speculated that she may have fallen out of favor with Akhenaten, or that her name was changed so that she became a co-ruler of Egypt. However, a recent discovery challenges all of this. In December of last year, Egyptologists with the Dayr-al-Barsha project announced that they had found an inscription, dated to year 16 of Akhenaten’s reign (shortly before his death), that mentions Nefertiti and shows that she was still Akhenaten’s “chief wife” (in the researchers words). Whatever happened in Akhenaten’s final years his religious changes, and new capital, would not survive his death. Within a few years of his death (which occurred around 1335 B.C.) a new king named Tutankhamun , whom many researchers now believe to have been Akhenaten’s son, ascended the throne.

A boy king, he had originally been named Tutankhaten, in honor of the Aten, but his name was changed to honor Amun, the god whom his father had tried to have wiped out. During Tut’s reign, Egypt would return to its original religious beliefs, Amun and Mut assuming their places on top of the Egyptian pantheon of gods. The capital that Akhenaten built would become abandoned within a few decades of his death, and the “heretic king” would fall into disgrace, not even being included on some king lists of Egypt. Furthermore, Tutankhamun would condemn Akhenaten’s actions in a stela found at Karnak. Part of it reads “the temples and the cities of the gods and the goddesses, starting from Elephantine [as far] as the Delta marshes… were fallen into decay and their shrines were fallen into ruin, having become mere mounds overgrown with grass… The gods were ignoring this land…” [From "The City of Akhenaten and Nefertiti," by Barry Kemp] The message was clear, Akhenaten, through his radical religious changes, had turned his back on the gods and so offended them.

Tutankhamun and his successors would restore things to how they had been before. Nefertiti Nefertiti Nationality: Ancient Egypt Executive summary: Queen of the Nile Nefertiti was the wife of Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, who later changed his name to Akhenaton , and mother-in-law to Pharaoh Tutankhamun . Her name means "beautiful" or "perfect", but her parentage is uncertain and nothing is known of her childhood. Some experts believe that she was a daughter of Pharaoh Ay and his wife Tey, while others argue that her mother was an Asian princess, Tadukhipa from Mitanni (Syria). She and her husband worshiped the god Aton -- as did all of Egypt, by decree -- but Nefertiti herself also seems to have been considered a living goddess of fertility. She played a prominent role in royal and religious life, which suggests that she was more a queen or co-ruler than merely one of the Pharaoh's wives. Akhenaton and Nefertiti ruled for about a dozen years, and then, in 1336 BC, the fourteenth year of his reign, she vanished.

There is no further mention of her in any historical record, so it is presumed Akhenaton ordered that her name never be mentioned again. It is unclear whether her disappearance indicates her death, or whether she assumed a new identity, fled the kingdom, or simply fell out of favor with the Pharaoh. One theory is that she became Pharaoh herself after Akhenaton's death. Her tomb and presumably mummified body were never found, although there has been some speculation that a damaged mummy found in a nondescript tomb in 2003 may be her. In the modern era, Nefertiti is best known for the famous artwork depicting her, a bust carved by the royal sculptor Djhutmose (sometimes spelled Thutmose, Thutmosis, or Tutmosis) and now housed at the Altes Museum in Berlin. The elongated gold beads she often wore are now called nefer beads, and Nefertiti's name is also applied to a certain style of a female genital piercing.

She was played by Jeanne Crain in Queen of the Nile, a fun but thoroughly fictionalized movie that has her in love with Djhutmose, with Vincent Price as her supposed father, a villainous high priest. Husband: Akhenaton (a.k.a. Amenhotep IV, Pharaoh) Daughter: Meritaten (b. circa 1348 BC) Daughter: Meketaten (b. circa 1347 BC) Daughter: Ankhesenamen (married Pharaoh Tutankhamun , b. circa 1346 BC) Daughter: Neferneferuaten Tasherit (b. circa 1344 BC) Daughter: Neferneferure (b. circa 1341 BC) Daughter: Setepenre (b. circa 1339 BC) New! Nefertiti, Queen of Egypt, active 14th century B.C. - Credo Reference Topic Page: Nefertiti, Queen of Egypt, active 14th century B.C.

Definition: Nefertiti from Philip's Encyclopedia (active 14th century BC) Queen of Egypt as a wife of Akhenaten, frequently depicted as his co-regent. Her best surviving representation is a bust now in the Berlin Museum, Germany, which depicts her as exceptionally beautiful. Summary Article: Nefertiti from The Encyclopedia of Ancient History Image from: Statuette of Amenophis IV (Akhenaten) and Nefertiti, from Tell el-Amarna, Amarna Period, New Kingdom, 1353-1337 BC (painted limestone) in The Bridgeman History of Science Nefertiti was the Great Wife of the Egyptian king Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV)), whom she seems to have married soon after his accession. Her origins remain a matter of debate, but she was certainly not the child of a king; it has been suggested that she may have been the daughter of the army officer Ay, who later became king.

Nefertiti and Akhenaten certainly had at least six daughters, Meryetaten, Meketaten, Ankhesenpaaten, Neferneferuaten-tasherit, Neferneferure, and Setepenre. It is unclear whether they had any sons, although it is possible that Akhenaten's probable son, Tutankhaten (later king as Tutankhamun), was also hers. In year 4/5 of her husband's reign, when he changed his own personal name from Amenhotep to Akhenaten, Nefertiti expanded her name to Neferneferuaten-Nefertiti, linking her explicitly with the new monotheistic cult of the sun-god Aten (see Aten/Aton) sponsored by Akhenaten. She appeared prominently alongside Akhenaten on many of his monuments, often wearing a distinctive flat-topped crown not otherwise found in an Egyptian queen's regalia, and in some cases with attributes more appropriate to a king. Nefertiti's last dated appearance is in Akhenaten's Year 12, and some have speculated that she died or was even disgraced soon afterwards.

However, it now seems almost certain that she was identical with the female king Ankhkheperure-merywaenre Neferneferuaten, who served as Akhenaten's co-ruler during his last years. It is possible that she continued to act as a co-ruler during at least the first three years of Tutankhaten, and as such was responsible for the first moves back towards polytheism after Akhenaten's death. Certainly the one dated text from Neferneeruaten's reign, dated to a Year 3, probably that of Tutankhaten, indicates that temples of Amun were by then flourishing again at Thebes. Unfinished quartzite head of Nefertiti from the workshop of the sculptor Djhutmose at el-Amarna. Egyptian Museum, Cairo. © Photo Scala, Florence. A number of items of Neferneferuaten's funerary equipment were subsequently used for the burial of Tutankhamun, indicating that she had not received the kingly burial that had been planned for her. Nothing is known of her actual burial place, although a tomb seems to have been begun for her at Amarna.

It is uncertain whether Nefertiti's mummy may have survived: a number of mummies of the period were subject to DNA analysis in 2009 (Hawass etal. 2010), but more work needs to be done before any firm conclusions can be reached on the potential identification of any body as hers. References and Suggested Readings Aldred, C. (1968) Akhenaten, Pharaoh of Egypt. London. Aldred, C. (1988) Akhenaten, King of Egypt. London. Arnold, D. (1996) The royal women of Amarna: images of beauty from ancient Egypt. New York. Dodson, A. (2009) Amarna sunset: Nefertiti, Tutankhamun, Ay, Horemheb and the Egyptian counter-reformation. Cairo. Freed, R. E.; Markowitz, Y. J.; D'Auria, S. H., eds. (1999) Pharaohs ofthe sun: Akhenaten; Nefertiti; Tutankhamen. London. Gabolde, M.

(1998) D'Akhenaton à Toutânkhamon. Lyons. Hawass, Z. et al. (2010) "Ancestry and pathology in King Tutankhamun's family." Journal of the American Medical Association 303/7: 638-47. Montserrat, D. (2000) Akhenaten: history, fantasy and ancient Egypt. London. Redford, D. B. (1984) Akhenaten: the heretic king. Princeton. Reeves, C. N. (2001) Akhenaten: Egypt's false prophet. London. Tyldesley, J. (1998) : Egypt's sun queen. London. Aidan Dodson MLA Dodson, A. (2012). Nefertiti. In R. S. Bagnall, K. Brodersen, C. B. Champion, A. Erskine, & S. R. Huebner, The encyclopedia of ancient history. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Retrieved from Dodson, Aidan.

"Nefertiti." In The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine, and Sabine R. Huebner. Wiley, 2012. Dodson, A. (2012). Nefertiti. In R.S. Bagnall, K. Brodersen, C.B. Champion, A. Erskine & S.R. Huebner, The encyclopedia of ancient history. [Online]. Hoboken: Wiley. Available from: [Accessed 20 January 2017]. Dodson, Aidan. "Nefertiti." The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, Roger S. Bagnall, et al., Wiley, 2012. Credo Reference, Accessed 20 Jan 2017. Images 1000+ images about Nefertiti ❤ on Pinterest | Egyptian queen, 14th century and Eye of horus Forward Nefertiti Queen of Egypt, 14th Century B.C.

was the powerful wife of Akhenaton, who worshiped a new religion honoring only one God, Aten. She later rejected this religion, backing her half-brother who re-established the old worship of the sun-god Amon. Her beauty was immortalized in exquisite sculptures made at the time. See More

Question: Nefertiti was the wife of which Egyptian Pharaoh?
Answer: Akhenaten